The Wrecking Crew by Taylor Zajonc

Jonah Blackwell is mired in a Moroccan prison for being a part of an illegal salvage job off the country’s coast. While being an accomplish saturation diver, he hasn’t the best rep because it turns out his father was a CIA station chief who was turned by the other side.

 

The prison’s new doc pulls Jonah out of a fight and stitches him up, offering him an out. The doc, Hassan Nassiri, will secret him out to his freedom if Jonah will help him find his mother. She was a marine biologist studying a particularly problematic red tide off the coast of Somalia when her plane was shot down by pirates. Her entire research program now rests at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. Hassan wants Jonah to find the plane and pull out her data. Hassan figures this is the best way to honor her memory.

Prison or a deep dive and freedom? Easy choice. Jonah is quite resilient and devises a plan to get to the Somali coast, but to do so will require stealing one of the world’s fastest yacht’s so they can outrun any pursuit, then bluff their way down the Suez and then acquire the needed diving gear. Simple.

Charles Bettencort, CEO of Bettencorps, is the world’s primero entrepreneur. He’s built an island business utopia on a series of decommissioned oil platforms and anchored them in the Indian Ocean; set up his own country essentially free off nasty impediments to business like laws, etc.  Doing some good and some underhanded things, too.

But, as with any plan, the first fog of battle changes everything. For example, the yacht’s engineer is inboard, so she ends up being kidnapped and willing helps out. They outrun surface pursuit. Bettencort learns of this mission and sends his own security forces to stop Hassan and Jonah. Even has a sub, which Jonah rams with his stolen ship, enters and kills most everyone. One injured sub pilot, a Russian, is saved by Hassan and he to goes along willingly with the plan.

Then . . . . and then . . . and then . . . . This book is one unlikely scenario after another that Hassan and Jonah manage to work their way around. They meet a friendly Somali pirate, are protected by a Somali family, helped by a woman captured a couple years earlier by other pirates, it goes on and on. OK. Maybe Clive Cussler has carved out a lucrative niche with fantastical marine adventures, but this one just seemed way, way over the top. Far too many convenient circumstances, unlikely turns of events, and that friendly pirate. Good grief.

East Coast Don

p.s. This should not be confused with the excellent documentary of the same name (it's on NetFlix). Think all the bands and singers from LA in the 50s and 60s played their own instruments on their records. Nay, Nay. The studio musicians of the time were nicknamed The Wrecking Crew. The Beach Boys? All those other beach music groups? Sonny and Cher? The girl groups? They all sang, but the music was by The Wrecking Crew. Fans of music of the 60s will find this documentary highly entertaining.